Senior Business Student Receives National Fellowship

Mary Baldwin University senior Jerema Lovell is one of 28 students from around the United States chosen for the Sigma Beta Delta 2016 Fellowship Award.

Each year, the program awards more than 20 fellowships, ranging from $1,000 to $1,500, to qualifying members for use in their academic studies.

Sigma Beta Delta is an international honor society for business that recognizes and promotes achievements in business, management, and administration. In order to be eligible for membership in Sigma Beta Delta, a student must rank in the top 20 percent of his or her class.

“You must watch out for the quiet ones, they sneak up on you. That is exactly what Jerema Lovell did as a business major at Mary Baldwin,” said Associate Professor of Business Janet Ewing. “You notice one day a student has a 4.0 in the major and is signing up for her third area of concentration. An outstanding quantitative student, always helping others, you recommend her for a Changemaker position and chosen, she excels beyond all expectations. The student you want to keep around for another year but know the workforce deserves to benefit from the knowledge and work ethic of this Boldly Baldwin first-generation woman. A woman so deserving of this national fellowship award from Sigma Beta Delta.”

Lovell is a business administration major who is pursuing a minor in communication, with an emphasis in management, marketing, and accounting. Lovell’s first three years at Mary Baldwin were spent on campus, and she is now finishing her last year by taking classes online.

The Sigma Beta Delta Fellowship funds must be used in either the final year of undergraduate work or for master’s degree study.

“To be selected for this accomplishment was a major eye-opener for me,” Lovell said. “I have never really won anything in my life and this fellowship was about my future, something I was unsure of.”

The thought of competing for the fellowship with other students around the nation initially overwhelmed Lovell. However, with encouragement from her peers she took a leap of faith and applied just one day before the deadline. Earning the fellowship has also renewed Lovell’s confidence in applying for graduate school.

“Winning this fellowship gave me the courage and motivation to actually put thought, time, and effort into more applications and competitions because anything is really possible,” Lovell said. “This fellowship allowed me to continue my education, which is one of my major goals,” Lovell said.

In the future, Lovell hopes to be a certified public accountant and open her own tax business. She says she is grateful for all of the help that she received from her professors and advisors at Mary Baldwin and finds it refreshing to be surrounded by so many peers and mentors who care so deeply about her future.